


Summer's End

by FosterTheBananas



Series: The Sky and the Sea [2]
Category: Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town (Video Game 2020), 牧場物語つながる新天地 | Story of Seasons
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:06:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26132386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FosterTheBananas/pseuds/FosterTheBananas
Summary: It's almost the end of summer and Kai is getting ready to leave again. Only this time, it seems that a few of the townspeople are struggling through some abandonment issues with poor Kai as the proxy.
Relationships: Gray/Kai (Harvest Moon)
Series: The Sky and the Sea [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897603
Kudos: 14





	Summer's End

“So, three days left of summer, huh?”

Kai was spread out across his bed at the inn. He turned to rest his head on one hand so that he could see Gray. Gray was sitting in the corner of the room with a book in hand. He let the book dangle from one hand as he waited for Kai’s response.

“Yep! I’ll be heading back home,” Kai said, “It’s just starting to warm up over there.”

“What does your family think?”

Kai snorted.

“About what?”

“You going back and forth all the time,” Gray said.

Kai tried to shrug but gave up when he realized he would have to lift his head up to do so.

“It’s been better for us, honestly. We didn’t exactly get along while I was growing up. Now that we spend time apart, well, it’s actually been easier for us. Even when I’m there now, we fight less,” Kai explained.

“Oh.”

Gray made like he was going to continue reading but then stopped.

“That must be nice. That you get along better, now, I mean. My dad and I, we never fought or anything but...I guess we never did much of anything, really. And when I go to visit him now it’s just… I don’t know.”

“Awkward?” Kai prompted.

“Awkward, yeah, but like there is something missing. Like we aren’t father and son but just strangers.”

“Hmm, that’s rough,” Kai said.

Kai waited for Gray to continue, but this time he really did go back to reading. Kai sighed, rolled over in his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Gray got sullen at the end of every summer. He would just have to ride it out.

\----

“Kai! Promise me you’ll write!” Popuri insisted.

The two were packing away his cooking ware in the cupboards of the cafe. When she turned to him, she shoved him lightly in the shoulder. 

“Hey, now!” Kai laughed. “Didn’t I last year?” 

He held his hands up in mock surrender. 

“I’m just making sure! Some people say they’ll write but…” she trailed off. “Just make sure you do again this year!”

“I will,” he promised.

“Okay, good.”

She pulled him in for a hug and then sighed.

"I have to run or Rick will throw a fit. I’ll see you before you leave tomorrow, okay?”

“Sounds good!”

Kai waved as Popuri left and then grabbed a broom to do one final sweep of the floor. He was almost finished when he heard the door open again.

“Back so soon?” he asked.

But when he looked he saw a very angry chicken farmer. 

“Oh, lovely,” he said. “Can I help you, Rick?”

“Got my sister to do all your work for you?” Rick spat.

“Listen, I don’t know what your problem is,” Kai said, “but your sister offered to help me. Nobody made her do anything.”

“You should know better than to accept her help! She’s just a kid!”

“ Dude, she’s not a kid. She’s an adult,” Kai said.

“And I told you to stay away from her!” Rick shot back.

Kai set his broom against the counter and walked the few spaces separating him and Rick.

“Seriously, what is your deal with me?” he asked.

Kai poked a finger into Rick’s chest, which Rick smacked it away.

“You-you!” Rick sputtered. “Listen! You!”

Kai snorted.

“Yes, me listening, chicken boy.”

Rick was getting red in the face as he tried to find his words.

“My problem!” he started up again. “My problem with you is you just swing by for a couple of weeks a year, get Popurri caught up in your spell, and then leave! Do you have any idea what that does to a person?”

“Dude-”

“No!”

Rick slammed his fist down on a table.

“You have no idea what’s that like! I have to take care of her!”

“She can-”

“You can’t just leave us like that!”

Rick was breathing heavily. The two let his words sink over them. 

“Rick.”

It was Kai who finally broke the silence.

“I’m not the one you’re angry at.”

Rick took a shaky breath. He looked scared at what he had said. He turned to leave and muttered something more to himself than to Kai. Kai could just barely make out his parting words.

“Dads shouldn’t leave their children…If you love someone you shouldn’t leave them.”

He closed the door gently on his way out.

As Kai stared at the empty doorway, he thought 

“ You’re right, but yelling at me isn’t going to fix your problems.”

\-----

“Mr. Man!” Kai called out as he entered the Inn room.

Gray was shining his boots on the edge of his bed. He looked up when Kai came in.

“Is that...me? Am I Mr. Man?” Gray asked.

“I want to talk to you.”

Kai flopped down onto the bed next to him.

“Okay…?”

“You know I’m not your dad, right?” Kai asked.

“Wh-what!?” Gray sputtered.

“Wait, that came out wrong! Let me start again!”

Kai ran a hand over the back of his head and readjusted his bandanna.

“What I mean is...when your dad left, that was shitty,” he began again. “But it’s nothing like when I leave. I’m going to visit my family, for one. I write... and I always come back.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Gray said. “It’s kinda like what you said before. About the sky and the ocean.”

“Sure, but you're less of the sky and more of a...fineapple,” Kai said.

“Wh-what!?” Gray sputtered for the second time that night.

Kai laughed.

“And seriously, Gray. I could never stay gone for good.”

“Yeah? Why is that?” Gray asked. “Is it because I’m a fineapple?”

This time they both laughed. It felt good to laugh together, and Kai thought that maybe this year he could come back to Mineral Town sooner.


End file.
